by Benjamin Zibit, Freelance journalist
New York City, August 2006
The Pentagon has Guantanamo Bay. New York City’s Department of Education has 25 Chapel Street. And 333 Seventh Avenue, 1 Fordham Plaza, 175 Ocean Terrace, Queens Plaza North, and a host of other smaller locales.
25 Chapel Street, a tall, brown and tan brick building behind basketball courts on Tillary Street in downtown Brooklyn, is actually a new home among the Department of Education’s detention centers for teachers and administrators under investigation and pulled from their schools. The common name for these centers, known well to almost every teacher on the Department of Education’s payroll, is the ‘rubber room.’ On the tenth floor of this behemoth of a building near the Manhattan Bridge sit over one hundred teachers, principals and support staff, ordered out of their schools by the Division of Human Resources for infractions ranging from minor arrests to serious charges of sexual abuse, dereliction of duty, or inappropriate behavior in the classroom or school.
The rubber room at 25 Chapel Street measures approximately 120 feet by 30 feet. There are tables, with chairs grouped around them. There are mattresses to lie on. There is a portable stove and a microwave. There is air conditioning, although at times, according to D., one former resident of the rubber room, the lights and air conditioning have been known to go out and hours can pass before the electrical problem is fixed. Sometimes arguments break out. Sometimes rubber room residents go AWOL—they just disappear.
The rubber room is not a prison, not in the ordinary sense. It is not windowless. There is an administrator assigned to monitor it. He usually sits by the door, reminding people to clock in each morning.
Teachers and staff assigned there by the Department of Education’s Bureau of Inquiry and Investigations arrive by 8:20 am, and clock out at the end of their day, 2:50pm, unless starting time at the school they once worked at had them working on ‘late schedule.’ The day at the typical rubber room ends before 4:00pm. Summer vacation spells relief for the sojourners there. Rubber room residents get summer vacation, too, just as regular teachers do.
But there is one difference: the average stay in a rubber room for a re-assigned teacher or principal is from one to two years. People have been there for much longer. Cases generally take approximately a year to resolve. At the end of summer vacation, rubber room residents and staff report back to a Regional Operations Center, where each rubber room may be found. At the Staten Island rubber room, according to an administrator there, there were 117 people in attendance in mid-June. Keith Kalb, press spokesman for the Department of Education, when reached on July 17, 2006, quoted a figure of about 570 reassigned staff in all the DOE’s rubber rooms. Carol Gerstl, a spokeswoman for Randi Weingarten, UFT President, confirmed this number. However, Ms. Gerstl admitted that 570, a number that “sounds right,” depends on DOE data, rather than an independent union assessment. S., who arrived at the rubber room at 25 Chapel Street in February 2006, told this reporter in late June that he believed there were over 800 DOE staff in rubber rooms around the city and personally attested to the fact that five or six new attendees come in to 25 Chapel Street every week.
The UFT, the city teachers’ union, which has been publicly silent on the existence of these rubber rooms for years, is becoming restive and uncomfortable about them. Ms. Weingarten, in a June email, commented that the union is trying to take action on the rubber room situation but added that some members do not want “to vindicate their rights.”
In a corporate environment, where a complicated union contract might be non-existent, rubber rooms would not exist. CEOs and Human Resource Divisions would almost certainly be free to terminate employees accused of malfeasance or more serious crimes quickly and without much fanfare. But the UFT contract with the Department of Education protects employees accused of violations of the Department’s code of behavior. If letters in an employee’s file do not serve to discipline him, then the DOE must send the accused staff member to a rubber room, where, according to the union contract, he is “reassigned to administrative duties, pending the outcome of (an) investigation.”
The union contract with the DOE, put in place on November 16, 2000 and amended by a new contract vote last November, also defines the limits of rubber room confinement. Any ‘reassigned’ employee must be restored to service in his school no more than six months after his removal, unless formal ‘3020-a’ charges have been lodged against him. Section 3020-a of the New York State Education Law permits a school board to bring state charges against tenured employees, with an eye to dismissing teachers and other staff who would otherwise be protected by tenure rules. A three-person jury hears each case, and since September 1994, when the New York State legislature revamped the state’s tenure law, the average time between being charged and receiving a formal hearing dropped to about 192 days. This is just over six months. The majority of detainees in the rubber room stay twice as long. 3020-a charges are not usually filed, as this is an expensive legal procedure, and, as a result, teachers simply languish in the rubber rooms. Many wait just for a DOE hearing to determine whether or not their case should proceed to a higher state level.
Rather than file state charges, the DOE relies on pressure and attrition to weed out employees it does not want. Many residents of DOE rubber rooms are there because of hearsay evidence against them. Apparently, it doesn’t take much to end up at 25 Chapel Street. A student may report an incident involving a suspect teacher to a school’s principal and the next thing the teacher knows, he is reassigned. Teachers do not necessarily have the right to see the specific evidence backing up charges against them. Nor are they usually given the opportunity to confront their accusers in the open, a right guaranteed all criminal defendants by the 6th Amendment to the Constitution.
Since charges brought by an employer against an employee are administrative in nature, unless serious enough to warrant arrest, the Department of Ed may have some wiggle room here, avoiding the Constitutional requirement that any accused person be confronted by the witnesses against him. Until the June 29, 2006 Hamdan vs. Rumsfeld Supreme Court ruling, the Pentagon used a similar argument in its treatment of terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay. Guantanamo detainees were treated as extra-judicial, administrative detainees. Now, true military courts martial and adherence to the Geneva Convention must be the rule for terrorists held incommunicado in American military detention facilities.
Union contracts seem to fall into a gray area, somewhere between true Bill of Rights protections and labor law. Until late August 2006, there was no complete version of the published contract between the UFT and the Department of Education; both sides simply put out written pronouncements changing the existing contract, with the old contract still technically in force. Now, in early September, a new official contract copy, sent to union members by the UFT, is in the hands of most teachers. The current contract expires on October 12, 2007.
In 2006 DOE teachers face increased chances of disciplinary action, from U-ratings to threats of dismissal. Principals have been known to conclude that allegations against a teacher are true, simply because a teacher fails to respond directly to the charges against him without a lawyer present. This is the fate S. suffered. The accused does have the right to union (UFT) representation, but that doesn’t always stop DOE authorities from writing formal file letters (which can adversely affect a teacher’s rating.) “The reason they put people in the rubber room,” S. says, “is that they’re hoping you’ll quit before it comes to a formal hearing.”
A trip to the rubber room may start with a written accusation against a teacher, a counselor, even a principal, but the story rarely ends there. Once a Department of Education employee is placed on the “Ineligible/Inquiry List,” he descends into the labyrinth of the DOE’s administr ative bureaucracy. Lawrence Becker, the Senior Deputy Executive Director for Human Resources at the DOE, whose office is at 65 Court Street in downtown Brooklyn, sends the accused notification that he has been placed on the Ineligible/Inquiry List. If a serious charge is involved, the Arrest Notification Unit, also at 65 Court, comes into the picture. Finally, the personnel manager at the nearest Regional Operations Center formally instructs the accused where to report. Then the long wait begins.
Sometimes, investigators from the Office of Special Investigations show up at a rubber room or even at a school to interview the accused. Investigators are often former police officers, now working for the DOE. An officer from the Special Commissioner of Investigation’s office interviewed S. According to S., the investigator never read him his rights, never said, “You have the right to remain silent.” “If you know your rights,” S. added, “you can refuse to talk. But the investigators never mention that you might have a representative present.” The investigators work in teams of two. One watches while the other interrogates. There is no tape recorder present and the interrogating officer simply takes notes. S. never received a transcript of these notes.
A teacher, guidance counselor or principal can expect to face long hours of tedium each day at the rubber room. Some reassigned staff don’t mind. While their cases slowly wind through the bureaucratic maze, the DOE pays them and they do not have to face the stress of interacting with students. In some cases, however, tenure in the rubber room resembles a theater of the absurd. One teacher has been in the rubber room awaiting final disposition of her case for two years. Despite many lawsuits against the Department of Education, she is still there. Another man, from the Caribbean basin, has been in rubber rooms for six years. He was formerly a guidance counselor and had a dispute with his principal over his alleged failure to report a case of suspected child abuse. A year or two after his reassignment, he had a DOE hearing and was apparently cleared of wrongdoing. Yet he is still in the rubber room. His physical appearance has deteriorated and no one wants to hire him. Still, contractual limits prevent him from being fired. In fact, according to S., who has spoken with him, this long-time resident of the rubber room doesn’t want to leave.
Keith Kalb, DOE spokesperson, expressed irritation at the seemingly intractable dilemma of the rubber room. “There is a $20 million cost for the rubber room. That’s money that could be spent educating kids,” Kalb said. Kalb also bristled at the description of rubber rooms as detention centers. Instead, he called them “reassignment rooms.” Kalb pointed out that even though the rubber rooms are closed for the summer, summer school staff can still be sent to them. Summer school teachers and other staff accused of misdeeds are fired from their summer jobs, may forfeit their pay (depending on the results of an investigation) and must report to Regional Operations Center rubber rooms in September. Since most summer school teachers are regularly appointed DOE staff during the school year, they may not report back to their assigned school and thus are lost in the system until their cases resolve themselves.
Because (as of June) there were—by its own count—almost 600 Department of Ed employees in rubber rooms, with more apparently coming in each week the schools are open, a new and disturbing trend has emerged. If the DOE would rather simply fire wayward employees and has the power of its state mandate to run the city schools by mayoral authority, then the Department of Education is using a disciplinary system it abhors to keep teachers in line, or out of the classroom. Threats of rubber room confinement or letters in an employee’s file have spread fear throughout the system. Since teachers cannot view accusatory statements made against them, they do not know when they may be summarily removed from the classroom. Students may have unwittingly become power brokers in the struggle between teachers and the DOE, with student safety the reason for removal of unwanted teachers from the classrooms. However, student safety is not necessarily enhanced if teachers work in an atmosphere of fear.
No education system or parent wants dangerous individuals around vulnerable children. But there is no way of knowing now where all the rubber room detentions will lead. The number of detainees in rubber rooms may level off, or it may increase in the coming months. It is hard to justify keeping nearly 600 employees in reassignment centers for months, if not years. DOE spokesperson Kalb claimed that due process rights of reassigned employees are not being violated. But if administrative and labor law continue to guide relations between the DOE and its employees, then civil rights law may end up in the back seat. In the meantime, S. is still waiting for his case to be settled. He would much rather be back in the classroom. But for now and perhaps for months into the future, S. will wait, like hundreds of other DOE employees, in limbo. And in 2006, that is a tough place to be.
Dr. Benjamin Zibit is a freelance reporter and former educator in the New York City Dept. of Ed. He taught for twenty four years in high schools and at CUNY and has a doctorate in the History of Science. Dr. Zibit has written several stories on topical issues in 2005-2006, including pieces on immigration, the bedbug epidemic in New York City, and on the international situation. Dr. Zibit knows several teachers who have been swept into the rubber room system at the DOE and wanted to write on their struggles and the conditions of their confinement. He continues to write on the current difficult situation and hopes the days of the rubber room are numbered.
Contact him at: bzibit@rcn.com
Saturday, December 23, 2006
Thursday, December 21, 2006
Failed Executive Rescued by Klein
JOEL I. KLEIN ANNOUNCES APPOINTMENT OF CHRISTOPHER CERF AS DEPUTY CHANCELLOR FOR ORGANIZATIONAL STRATEGY, HUMAN CAPITAL, AND EXTERNAL AFFAIRS"Mr. Cerf will assume responsibility for all areas related to human capital, including labor relations, leadership development, and principal and teacher recruitment, training, and support. His responsibilities in the area of external relations include media and communications as well as political affairs."
The Perfect Resume for the DOE - the former, failed CEO of the anti-union Edison. The DOE can truly be a haven for corporate waste. Does Cerf get stock options?
"Mr. Cerf brings extensive experience to his new position. Currently a partner in the Public Private Strategy Group, he advises school districts pursuing comprehensive reform strategies. Previously, Mr. Cerf served for eight years as the President and Chief Operating Officer of Edison Schools, Inc. He earlier served as Associate Counsel to President Clinton and as a partner in two Washington, D.C., law firms. Mr. Cerf is a graduate of Amherst College and Columbia Law School, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Law Review, and served as a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. Prior to attending law school, he spent four years as a high school history teacher in Cincinnati, Ohio. Mr. Cerf graduated from the Broad Urban Superintendents Academy in 2004."
Broad is part of the privatization movement in the schools. He also gave the UFT $1 million for its charter schools. Cerf and Randi have appeared on panels together. Maybe they should have a merger of the DOE, Edison and the UFT.
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
NEA Attack on anti-NCLB petition - a response
This is an interesting development since the AFT cooperated in developing NCLB. Ed Notes was on the case from the beginning, criticizing Sandra Feldman and Randi Weingarten for being part of a process that could only increase drastically the impact of high stakes testing. The NEA staid on the sidelines and lobbed critiques.Where is the AFT on the issue? (And to think, the NEA is supposedly more democratic than the AFT. But then again, as the recent NY Sun article pointed out, the UFT's Randi Weingarten will be the next AFT President whenever she wants the job - that ought to solve the democracy problem.) Recently, Weingarten has been making some noise about NCLB, testing, etc. But that may only be the usual noise. She formed a task force, the usual response of politicians to make it seem they are doing something. Of course, she formed a previous task force on testing years ago that disappeared into the jaws of UFT bureacracy. The behind the scenes guy on both was UFT staffer Joe Colletti. If you see him, ask him if they hid the first task force with the weapons of mass destruction.
An Open Letter to the Rank and File Members of the National Education Association
Check out the ICE blog on high stakes testing for the full text of the letter.
http://highstakesonice.blogspot.com/
Please direct all inquiries to Dr. Philip Kovacs, Director of the Educator Roundtable, at www.educatorroundtable.org .
Cartoon courtesy of Susan Ohanian web site.
The Empire Strikes Back – Part 1
by Norman Scott
(From The Wave, Dec. 15, 2006)
The first shot in the school wars circa 2009 was fired in the glowing Dec. 4 NY Times article on Region 5 Superintendent Kathleen Cashin (“the best turnaround artist in town”), a possible precursor to her becoming the first post-Klein chancellor. There’s so much delicious meat in the article, your cholesterol count goes up while you’re reading it.
The reporter, David Herzenhorn emphasized differences between Cashin and the Tweedle Dees and Tweedle Dumbs.
“While Mr. Klein has derided the ‘status quo crowd’ and sought to bring outsiders into the administration, Dr. Cashin is a lifelong city educator. While Mr. Klein wants to free principals from the control of superintendents like her, Dr. Cashin believes even the best principals need an experienced supervisor.
“Where Mr. Klein insists that school administration must be reinvented to reverse generations of failure by generations of educators, Dr. Cashin, a product of the old system, insists she can get results with a clear instructional mission, careful organization and a simple strategy of every educator’s being supported by an educator with more experience.
“…Dr. Cashin stands, in a way, as the antithesis of Mr. Klein’s mission to slash midlevel bureaucracy and let principals sail on their own, a challenge to the notion that changing governance structure is the key to turning around schools.
“She runs her schools in Region 5, with more than 85,000 students, the same way she ran her schools under the old Board of Education and under previous mayors.”
Wow! Is Cashin a candidate to wake up with a couple of horse’s heads in her bed, or what? The article reflected a shift in the position of the Times which had given BloomKlein unabashed support, often underreporting many of the emerging scandals while the Post and the News were getting one scoop after another. But wait! There’s more.
“Dr. Cashin prefers principals who come up through the system over graduates of the chancellor’s Leadership Academy, which has focused on recruiting candidates from other professions. And while Mr. Klein has dealt with the teachers’ union on a war footing, Dr. Cashin has made the union a partner, hiring it to train teachers instead of using outside vendors.”
“Though she uses the citywide math and reading programs in many schools, Dr. Cashin does not believe they are sufficient and customizes them extensively, with an emphasis on writing. She also uses an array of other initiatives of her own choosing or design.”
Holy Cow! Cashin actually tampered with the DOE’s Holy Grail — the curriculum? Maybe a horse head followed by cement shoes.
But she has even gone further to dis Klein. Cashin to her credit has been able to resist the imposition of Leadership Academy grads specially trained to torture teaches and small animals. That action alone must have gotten her on the Tweed enemies list.
To add further insult, only 15 principals joined Klein’s so-called “empowerment” zone where principal’s are supposedly given autonomy to run their own ship, but also putting their heads on the chopping block. It should be called the “disembowelment” zone.
When BloomKlein came along they had to rely on the old guard like Cashin until they could recruit enough people who had never set foot anywhere near a school since they graduated from high school. Now that they have what they consider a critical mass to truly take over the school system from the bottom up, they are into phase 2 which they hope will drive out every remnant of institutional memory.
The Times reported, “since the start of the mayor’s second term, Mr. Klein has pushed to reduce the role of superintendents, giving wider authority to principals in an effort that could lead to consolidation or elimination of the 10 regions. That could potentially leave the regional superintendents without jobs or perhaps filling a new role in which principals choose them to advise groups of schools. They would no longer be supervisors but rather support staff.”
So, the battle is on. For those anti-Kleinites who are beginning to cheer, let’s not get overly excited here. A look under the hood shows that Cashin is still mucho in line with focusing on the bottom line of scores to the exclusion of all else, being for plenty of test practice, gobs of micromanagement and a total top-down management system, policies she followed when Klein was still a whipper snapper nipping at Microsoft’s heals.
Yet, that Cashin would so brazenly be quoted just on the edge of arrogance toward the Tweed crowd given the climate of fear running through the ranks of middle and upper level managers at the DOE, both at the central and regional level, is remarkable, showing some of the cracks between BloomKlein and the old education aristocracy that existed BBK (Before BloomKlein). But no worries, for Cashin’s future, at least. The Times article is a clear sign that the empire is striking back.
Saturday, December 16, 2006
A Party for 7637
It's parteeee time for all 7637 souls who voted NO on the contract. Radio City Music Hall has been reserved and the Rockettes will dance to the tune "We Don't Really Hate Randi, Just Her Policies," a musical piece specially commissioned by ICE for the occasion. It is expected that all 7637 people will attend the next ICE meeting, to be held in an apartment in Brooklyn. Extra chairs have been rented.
Thursday, December 14, 2006
ICE to Disband After Contract Vote - Will Join New Action
With the UFT leadership demonstrating such overwhelming strength in its 9-1 victory on the contract vote, the Independent Community of Educators (ICE) has decided to disband and join New Action en masse. New Action and Unity have tightened security at the borders to allow for an orderly retreat. A spokeperson for ICE said, "This is it for us. The Unity onslaught is relentless and we can't take it anymore. From now on we will just attend Executive Board meetings to eat. At least we won't have to worry about that Polonium stuff they've been sneaking into our portions." ICE will be putting its entire stockpile of nuclear weapons up for sale on E-Bay.
Parents Against Charter Cap Being Lifted
The pro charter school, anti public education, anti union movement always claims it is teachers who are opposed to lifting the charter school cap of 100 schools in New York State. Of course, the union has a problem addressing this issue since it runs 2 of the 100 schools. The UFT says it will compromise if it is easier for charter school teachers to join a union. There are even back door rumors that the union would even make a political deal in exchange for who knows what.
If you subscribe to Leonie Haimson's listserve, which serves a large group of parents, you will notice that there is a lot of sentiment to oppose charters because they draw resources from public schools. Here are 2 emails posted today (12/14).
Assembly woman Sylvia Friedman:
Please Ms. Friedman. Vote against this charter school amendment, which proposes, among other things, to raise the cap on charter schools excluding New York City from a cap altogether. Besides the fact that this bill is designed to gentrify certain neighborhoods, including Harlem, there are problems with this bill and maybe the law itself. How can a charter school share a regular public school building with a regular public school and be granted smaller sized classes, but the other school has to over crowd its classes? I know this is in certain situations but still it can happen. However, even if a charter school took over a building altogether or moved into a new one, why would it not be considered that the charter school is underutilizing the building space, but under the same circumstances a regular public school would be considered? In other words, why does one school get to have 17 students per class, mas or menos, and the other school 30-35, or whatever the cap is?
I understand that the new amendment allows for the chancellor to place schools as he sees fit, unlike the current law which only allows him to place schools with one another only upon the grounds that such school is underutilizing the school building space or failing. But I have problems with that too. Under our Education law he is supposed to provide for an equal opportunity for all students in the city schools. One public school cannot have the benefits of a smaller class size by enforcement and the other not, also by enforcement. So you see where this is going to lead us? I would think in court. Parents are not going to stand for this.
The assembly will get their raises from the next governor. But the assembly should not violate the trust of the people for a raise. That will lead us in court too.
Yours truly,
Edward Dixson
The legislature did not raise the charter school cap and the Senate has been dismissed, supposedly until next year. But Spizer was quoted as being disappointed about charters:
"Civil commitment and charter schools are important issues that need to be addressed, either in the current special session or early next year. Other measures, such as lucrative early retirement proposals, should not be rushed through before they are fully analyzed and debated."
Here's a link to the Times Union blog for an account of the events: http://blogs.timesunion.com/capitol/?p=3008
If Spitzer supports an increase in charters, the pressure to remove the cap will be much greater. With the cap on charters removed and the CFE money provided with no accountability or strings attached, the Mayor has the elements in place needed to create his parallel system of schools. Our overcrowded schools will be left to wither.
If there was ever a time to reach out to our elected representatives and demand resources be applied to our public schools, this is surely it.
Patrick Sullivan
If you subscribe to Leonie Haimson's listserve, which serves a large group of parents, you will notice that there is a lot of sentiment to oppose charters because they draw resources from public schools. Here are 2 emails posted today (12/14).
Assembly woman Sylvia Friedman:
Please Ms. Friedman. Vote against this charter school amendment, which proposes, among other things, to raise the cap on charter schools excluding New York City from a cap altogether. Besides the fact that this bill is designed to gentrify certain neighborhoods, including Harlem, there are problems with this bill and maybe the law itself. How can a charter school share a regular public school building with a regular public school and be granted smaller sized classes, but the other school has to over crowd its classes? I know this is in certain situations but still it can happen. However, even if a charter school took over a building altogether or moved into a new one, why would it not be considered that the charter school is underutilizing the building space, but under the same circumstances a regular public school would be considered? In other words, why does one school get to have 17 students per class, mas or menos, and the other school 30-35, or whatever the cap is?
I understand that the new amendment allows for the chancellor to place schools as he sees fit, unlike the current law which only allows him to place schools with one another only upon the grounds that such school is underutilizing the school building space or failing. But I have problems with that too. Under our Education law he is supposed to provide for an equal opportunity for all students in the city schools. One public school cannot have the benefits of a smaller class size by enforcement and the other not, also by enforcement. So you see where this is going to lead us? I would think in court. Parents are not going to stand for this.
The assembly will get their raises from the next governor. But the assembly should not violate the trust of the people for a raise. That will lead us in court too.
Yours truly,
Edward Dixson
The legislature did not raise the charter school cap and the Senate has been dismissed, supposedly until next year. But Spizer was quoted as being disappointed about charters:
"Civil commitment and charter schools are important issues that need to be addressed, either in the current special session or early next year. Other measures, such as lucrative early retirement proposals, should not be rushed through before they are fully analyzed and debated."
Here's a link to the Times Union blog for an account of the events: http://blogs.timesunion.com/capitol/?p=3008
If Spitzer supports an increase in charters, the pressure to remove the cap will be much greater. With the cap on charters removed and the CFE money provided with no accountability or strings attached, the Mayor has the elements in place needed to create his parallel system of schools. Our overcrowded schools will be left to wither.
If there was ever a time to reach out to our elected representatives and demand resources be applied to our public schools, this is surely it.
Patrick Sullivan
Monday, December 11, 2006
Lafayette, South Shore, Tilden to Close - UFT Goes Along for the Ride
From Lafayette HS:
"It's official now. Lafayette will have no freshman class next year, and three to four new schools will start moving into the building. UFT VP for HS Frank V. and Dist. Rep Charlie F. were there to answer questions. 50% of new school positions are guaranteed to Lafayette teachers, we were told. We were also told South Shore and Tilden will meet he same fate. Even though the announcement by the DOE was not unexpected, we are stunned by the news."
The DOE attack on large schools continues. Instead of putting in the resources necessary to fix these schools, the DOE will allow 4 schools to compete for resources, the most precious to them being kids who can perform. And 3 more schools full of teachers being thrown under the ATR bus.
The role of the UFT reps seems to be to smooth the way and answer questions instead of fighting like hell to keep this from happening.
"It's official now. Lafayette will have no freshman class next year, and three to four new schools will start moving into the building. UFT VP for HS Frank V. and Dist. Rep Charlie F. were there to answer questions. 50% of new school positions are guaranteed to Lafayette teachers, we were told. We were also told South Shore and Tilden will meet he same fate. Even though the announcement by the DOE was not unexpected, we are stunned by the news."
The DOE attack on large schools continues. Instead of putting in the resources necessary to fix these schools, the DOE will allow 4 schools to compete for resources, the most precious to them being kids who can perform. And 3 more schools full of teachers being thrown under the ATR bus.
The role of the UFT reps seems to be to smooth the way and answer questions instead of fighting like hell to keep this from happening.
Sunday, December 10, 2006
Indecent Exposure
"School Scope" column reprint from The Wave, Dec. 1. 2006 by Norman Scott
After years of being part of a tiny minority in sea of BloomKlein worshippers amongst the NYC and national press corps, it’s nice to see the worm finally beginning to turn.
In recent months, we have seen articles in the mainstream press exposing some major foibles of the BloomKlein hostile takeover of the NYC school system.
Years ago, in one of my usual fits of hyperbole, I that the school systems of Kabul and Baghdad would recover sooner than the NYC school system and that one day Joel Klein will be taken out of Tweed with his coat over his head.
A short list of crimes and misdemeanors
Inflated graduation rates.
Inflated test scores and cover-ups of massive cheating scandals in addition to scores being pumped up by constant test prep. “Test-mania fuels cheating at many schools, teachers say,” said just one headline that is just the tip of the iceberg. The overwhelming majority of school personnel will remain silent due to fear. (Maria Colon, the union rep at JFK HS in the Bronx, is being persecuted and may lose her job because she exposed her administration, which has gotten off Scot-free.)
Inflated boasts for the success of the small schools where there are no at-risk students for the first 2 years (and bet on discouragement of their enrollment forever) while destroying so many children’s lives and teacher careers in large comprehensive high school.
Inflated salaries at the revolving door at Tweed.
Inflated amounts given to consultants.
Inflated claims for the impact of the reorganization that has left so many crucial services in shambles.
Inflated claims that the money saved is going to classroom instruction rather than pet projects
Inflated (enormously) gifts to real estate developers to squeeze houses anywhere they want without making arrangement to provide for adequate schools.
Inflated claims of class size reduction while NYC has the highest class sizes in the state, if not the nation. (Any reference to how teachers and schools with large class sizes can be held accountable are treated as “ excuses.”)
Every teacher and administrator who spent significant time in classrooms knew without consulting any reports or studies that these claims were lies, maybe one for the major reasons for the attacks on so many experienced teachers and administrators.
Leonie Haimson of Class Size Matters reports on her listserve that an independent analysis by “Policy Studies Associates” found fewer ELL students at the small schools and that students recruited for the small schools had better test scores, grades, and attendance on average than the those left behind at the low-performing high schools.
Haimson also pointed to a report by “NY Lawyers for the Public Interest” that showed how the small schools discriminate against special ed students, “yet the conclusions of report after report, study after study, are denied by the administration.”
(http://www.advocatesforchildren.org/pubs/2005/ellsmallschools06.pdf)
A joint report by “The New York Immigration Coalition & Advocates for Children of New York” quoted a small schools administrator in the Bronx:
“We don’t have ELL students. They can apply, but we can't serve them. Eventually we will have services for them, but we just don’t have the people to do it right now. If the students are accepted, we end up transferring them. Now that we are in our third year, we have to accept [ELLs], but we are still trying to find a teacher for them.”
At a press conference, Joel Klein bragged about how the grad rates were even higher than first announced (57% vs 54%). The state claims the rate is 43%. Responding with hocus pocus figures he said something about trying to compare apples and oranges, one of his favorite expressions. He proudly pulled out charts comparing the even higher rates than the averages from the small schools that he had championed, comparing them to the dismal rates at the large comprehensive high schools.
Rather than try to fix the large schools deemed failing, they have been shut down in a painful spiral – squeezed by crowding small schools that are treated favorably into their buildings, forced to accept the most at risk kids, etc. For every kid helped by the small schools, who knows how many have suffered? When 4 schools replace 1 large one, there are reports that they are populated by totally different kids. Where did most of the kids from the large schools go?
When I raised questions that there were few or none of the kinds of high risk kids in the small schools that can drain the resources of even well-run schools, Klein claimed there was no difference and that they didn’t engage in “creaming” of the best students by the small schools, pointing to income and the number of level ones and twos. My instincts said there was something wrong. I know full well that even if you hold a lottery there is a significant advantage to recruiting kids whose parents are even aware of the lottery and get it together to apply. But not having proof other than my common sense based on experience with the realities, I could only hope that some day the real story would be exposed. Hopefully, the time has come.
The Greatest Contract Ever Sold
We went to see NY Times columnist Frank Rich and Columbia Provost Alan Brinkley (David Brinkley’s son) at CUNY recently. Rich’s book, “The Greatest Story Ever Sold,” about the unraveling of the Bush administration has opened up a window to the way the Iraq war was sold to the public and the shameful buying into it all by the press. We found eerie similarities to the way the Ed press in New York and nationally have bought into the BloomKlein story of reform in the NYC school system. As the Bush story has unraveled, the press has begun to try to wipe some of the egg off its face. As reported above, the BloomKlein fiction may be going through a similar unraveling.
Speaking of selling snake oil, a book should be written called “The Greatest Contract Ever Sold” about how the UFT leadership managed to sell the 2005 contract, the worst contract ever signed since it gave back so many of the gains over the last 40 years; a contract being compared unfavorably with the one the Indians signed with the Dutch — the UFT didn't even ask for the $24 in beads as a takeback.
Despite the sell job, 40% of the teachers voted NO. The new 2-year extension of the “GCES” current being voted on will not require as much effort, but the UFT leadership is not taking any chances and is sending “the suits” into the schools. These “suave” characters will actually end up getting some people to vote against the contract just based on their obnoxious attitude.
Remember the promises of a year ago? Coming soon – 55/25. The end to micromanagement? Teachers having the freedom to choose the schools they want to go to?
Ask the numerous teachers, many of them over 40, whose schools have been closed (which many of us suspect are often for bogus reasons designed to get rid of all the teachers, something the UFT has gone along with) and are now day-to-day subs. This can happen to any school that closes. Attacks on experienced teachers continue to go on as the DOE is trying to run a Peace Corps where it replaces and retrains teachers every few years. An article in “Fortune” talked about how Goldman Saks and JP Morgan are teaming up with Teach for America so that Ivy League grads can spend two years teaching and then go directly into high-paying jobs in finance.
Klein loves TFA because they provide a continual, expendable resource of cheap teachers. “Generally, the TFA teachers are much less excuse-bound and more entrepreneurial and creative," Klein said. Almost 8 percent of new teachers this year came from TFA.
TFA teachers who do stay will one day find themselves under the same attacks, as the DOE implements a corporate culture that drives people out as they age. The new 100G salary? Sounds great but what percentage of people who enter teaching will stay long enough to get it? As salaries climb, attempts to make people leave will rise with it.
The new contract offers a “voluntary” buyout to the people who cannot get jobs who have to work as day-to-day subs. They will probably put people in the DOE version of Abu Ghraib until they say “I give.” Or just maybe a simple transfer to somewhere as far away from their home as possible. Or make them take the “A” train. Look for the DOE to put out no-bid contracts for water-boarding equipment and electric shock therapy for each region.
Saturday, December 9, 2006
Seymour Papert in a Coma
Anyone who has been involved in tech education for any length of time is aware of the impact Seymour Papert has had on education. When the first Apple computers arrived in my school around 1983, just about the only program it came with was LOGO, the computer language program where you got to program a turtle to move around the screen, a wonderful envirnmeent for teaching and learning. One of my favorite projects was having my computer classes use LOGO to write nursery rhymes. Seeing even 2nd graders putting Humpty Dumpty up on that wall and having him fall down and splatter as all the kings horses and all the king's men march on, was a delightful experience. Though LOGO is not used much in public schools in NYC, its successor is used in many private schools. Eventually, LOGO and LEGO came together and spurred robotics programs in so many schools. As I head off to a robotics event that is being put on by the Brooklyn Tech robotics team this morning for about 25 schools in Brooklyn, I can only wish Mr. Papert a speedy recovery.
Vietnam: U.S. Expert on Computer Teaching in Coma
Vietnam: U.S. Expert on Computer Teaching in Coma
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Seymour Papert, a computer scientist internationally recognized as the leading expert on how technology can provide new ways to learn, was in a coma after he was hit by a motorbike in Hanoi. Mr. Papert, 78, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor emeritus, was among more than 100 experts from 30 countries who gathered in Hanoi this week for a conference on teaching mathematics with digital technology. He was an inventor of the Logo programming language and is an adviser to the One Laptop Per Child project to build a $100 laptop for the children of the developing world.
Friday, December 8, 2006
Ding, Dong
Michele Cahill, a top adviser to Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein, has resigned and will return in January to the Carnegie Corporation of
Old Kleinites never go away totally, but often find time to keep feeding at the trough as consultants. With stories coming out of St. Lous about A&M's role there, the recent NY Times article critical of the DOE (on Region 5's Supt. Cashin), and other revelations, is the Good Ship Lollipop taking on water?
Praha Go Bragh-ha
Prague (Praha in Czech) and Budapest have developed reputations as hot places to go. So I went. Since the late 80’s, Eastern Europe is in the midst of massive redevelopment. The idea is to get there and see a touch of old Europe as it was before the entire continent gets turned into a giant strip mall.... My favorite Czech expression: “Strc prst skrz krk.” Translation: “Stick your finger through your throat.”
Read about my recent trip to Prague at the LostWriters web site in the Wanderlust section. If you are over 30, bring your passport. While there, check out the weekly (Saturday) postings of Holly Hagen, one of my fiction writing group buddies, who is also the editor of the travel section.
Prague building after drinking a few tons of beer, the Czech national drink.
Read about my recent trip to Prague at the LostWriters web site in the Wanderlust section. If you are over 30, bring your passport. While there, check out the weekly (Saturday) postings of Holly Hagen, one of my fiction writing group buddies, who is also the editor of the travel section.
Prague building after drinking a few tons of beer, the Czech national drink.
Thursday, December 7, 2006
Education Notes - December, 2006
The print edition was distributed at the UFT Delegate Assembly on Dec. 6, 2006. A pdf is available for distribution to your schools by sending an email to norscot@aol.comWhere We Lie Down
Formerly titled “Where We Stand” (circa 1990) and “Where We Sit (circa 2000)
People opposed to the Unity Caucus machine have been branded as complainers and malcontents with no positive ideas. I find that funny since in the over 10 years education Notes has been around, we have put out numerous proposals, most either rejected outright or talked to death. With the end of the year coming, I though I would reprise just a few. Read more about where we lie down on the ednotesonline blog. HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
Fight Abusive Principals, Defend Members in the Schools Vigorously and Most Importantly, PROTECT CHAPTER LEADERS
Look at the results rather than the bullshit. What are the conditions in your school of your chapter? Is being chapter leader a fun job? Are people scared shitless?
I won’t go into all the details of our 10 year fight to take care of the core business of the UFT. When my principal threatened to dismantle my computer program as retaliation for my activities as chapter leader in the mid-90’s I brought resolutions to the DA calling for protection for chapter leaders. (This was in the days when Klein was more worried about Microsoft than lesson plans.) The Unity packed DA overwhelmingly said NO.
Here is an interchange I had with a blogger who urged ratification of the contract:
“We should ratify this deal. But we should be clear about what we are ratifying. The agreement is mediocre. We don’t lose anything major, nor do we gain much. The money almost keeps up with inflation. We don’t win back anything we lost in the last, awful contract. And there are a couple of provisions that make me nervous. Then why ratify? We are not strong enough, our union is not strong enough at this juncture to have done substantially better. We can use the time to strengthen ourselves. We must.”
I responded:
Why has the UFT leadership, which has been in control forever, had no ability to keep the union from being so weak? Given that fact, and assuming they will continue to be in power, what makes you think they have somehow come up with the magic formula to do what they have not been willing or able to do up to now? Is there a magic bullet? Or must we go back to the basic organizing that built the union in the early days?
If the answer is the latter, I claim that the current leadership is so satisfied and entrenched and sitting out of harm’s way that they have no reason to be hungry enough to do that gut level work. If they were ever threatened by a serious opposition [see note on the “responsible’ opposition below], something we are very far from seeing, that might do the trick. Which is why I claim that trying to build such a viable movement in the UFT will have the biggest impact on accomplishing what you want to see. In that light I can say that a NO vote would be such a sign as opposed to accepting that we are just too weak to fight. That attitude is so counter to strengthening the union. Can you imagine the conditions the organizers of the UFT faced when a relative few walked out on strike for the first time? That is the kind of toughness and spirit that is needed.
A perfect example took place at the UFT Exec Bd. meeting on Monday, Dec. 4. A teacher from Norman Thomas HS pleaded for relief from an abusive AP who had made so many people’s lives miserable. Randi said, “Do you want me to come,” which caused guffaws from those of us in the back who had watched the UFT allow this crap to go on. Chapter Leader and TJC member Nick Licari interrupted (calls of out of order came from the Unity faithful) that the UFT Manhattan Borough office had the case for a year and did nothing. Boro Rep Jerry Goldman defended their actions by saying they did not have enough information to file a grievance and the people at Norman Tomas could have appealed but didn’t. What a joke! Here is an AP running rampant over scads of teachers for a year and Randi wants to go there after the body is practically in the ground.
Randi promised 80 teachers at Lafayette HS sufffering under the famous Jolanta Rohloff an article in the NY Teacher. So far? Nada! Columns in the Wave and in Ed. Notes exposing Rohloff in the “Galleries Lafayette” articles prompted an email from Rohloff complaining about my articles. (NOTE: Some Unity Caucus Lafayette reps have said that Weingarten has really helped, but they are Unity, so take this with a grain of salt.)
At Sheepshead Bay HS the Leadership Academy principal is running rampant giving people U-ratings, yet District Rep. Charlie Turner smugly shows up only to tell people how great the new contract and yell at them for not standing up to her.
Turner and Goldman are indicative of how the union works. Blame the victims while these guys are safely ensconsed at UFT HQ (and getting all the raises the members get from the new contract without any of the risks.)
Randi Weingarten has been too busy worrying that John Stossel made her look bad to take care of core business. That demo at ABC should have been held at Norman Thomas, Lafayette and Sheepshead Bay high schools.
NOTE:
Charlie Turner, the Brooklyn HS District Rep and prototypical Unity goon, who has always refused to accept anything I hand out, came over and asked me to step outside to "talk." I refused. "Don't use my name without talking to me first," he threatened, calling me a scumbag. I called him a useless piece of shit. UPS can be the new catchall name for Unity goons.
Mayoral Control: UFT Will Stay the Course
Literally minutes after Randi Weingarten uttered the words she was in favor of this abomination in 2001, we opposed it. Our position has always been to set up a system that gives the most say to teachers in their schools. The leadership’s goal is a system where they have the most influence. These are NOT the same thing. Mayoral control where they control the mayor is their goal. But mayors do change.
Here’s the skinny. Randi supports it and will always support it no matter how many task forces she forms or what they come out with as a recommendation. Her problem is to make it look like she has reservations or is opposed. But that should be easy. Say one thing and do another.
Watch the UFT either be neutral, which amounts to support since it’s the only body capable of marshalling enough support to kill it. Judge actions by the final result: Mayoral control will still be intact with a few cosmetic changes in 2010. Bet the ranch. Check out the ICE leaflet on this issue and support the ICE resolution. Weingarten claims that ICE want to stop the members from discussing the issue. The members have spoken. Not sure? Just ask the people in your school.
Cut Class size through contract negotiations
UFT leaders always frame this issue in terms of class size reductions will come out of the salary package and come up with gimmicks. This argument is specious. Do health benefits come out of the salary package? Copy machines? Books, desks, supplies, etc.? Would the leadership argue kids should stand so we could get more money? How about toilet paper? BYOR - Bring Your own Roll and earn 50 cents more a week. It was good that at some point the union DID negotiate class size limits or there would be 80 in class. Check the success rate of the UFT policy on class size: the highest in the state, if not the nation.
New Action and Unity Seal the Deal
If you missed our piece last month (check the blog) on the arrangement being made between Unity and New Action to run a joint slate with cross-endorsed candidates in the UFT elections this spring, the deal has been sealed. New Action will get a bunch of at-large seats, guaranteeing their election, and 3 out of the 6 high school candidacies to challenge the ICE/TJC slate, which will now have a battle to maintain independent voices on the Exec. BD. The goal of Unity/New Action it to create the illusion of a “responsible” opposition, which translates into supporting Unity on every issue. Again, watch what they do, not what they say. Does anyone think that the old guard of unity Caucus that disliked New Action leadersfor numerous reasons are happy? The word “sycophants” about New Action leaders often gets whispered by Unity faithful. Stronger words have been used by the old New Action constituency which had fought Unity for so long.
Tuesday, December 5, 2006
Mayoral Control
The UFT leadership quickly cobbled together a resolution on mayoral control at the Dec. 4, 2006 Exec. Bd. meeting after the ICE resolution calling for the UFT to call for the end of mayoral control was emailed to Randi Weingarten by an ICE member asking for speaking time to present the motion at the Dec. 6 DA. That these people spend so much time worrying about what teeny tiny ICE is doing is beyond bizarre. And watching the machinations of Weingarten to try to paint ICE as being the ones not being democratic is truly a special treat - definitely better than some of those stale cookies at the meeting. Randi is trying to make it look like Ed Notes and ICE just came up with the idea of putting forth a resolution on mayoral control in respone to a Unity plan to create another task force - the usual method politicians use to stall an issue. In researching an article the Dec. paper edition of Ed. Notes I went back into the dusty -- cough, cough – archives and dug up some oldies but goodies. I had been writing about the negative impact of mayoral control on school systems around the nation in Ed. Notes in the monthly editions handed out at the Delegate Assembly since 2001. When Ed Notes expanded to a 16 page tabloid in the fall of 2002, the first edition (with a circulation of 12,000) had the following article on the front page.September, 2002
Coming Soon to a School Near You: Mayoral Control
When UFT leader Randi Weingarten floated a proposal to give the mayor control of the school system in May 2001, Education Notes took strong exception, arguing that giving politicians control would only result in a system of education by the numbers in a corporate style system.
Our criticism caused a breach in our relationship to the UFT leadership that has not been healed to this day. Weingarten took exception to what she perceived was an accusation that she was selling us out. We did not go that far, but we did feel that she was in favor of recentralizing the school system, thus opting for short term gains (a quick contract) while sacrificing the long term interests of school workers, whose ability to control the conditions under which they work decrease significantly under centralized control.
Mayor Giuliani’s scornful rejection of that deal delayed our contract for more than a year. It was the union’s behind the scenes support for giving Mayor Bloomberg control that finally got the contract done. Did Weingarten sell out our educational interests for a pot of gold? The next few years will allow people to judge for themselves.
This month, we give our readers a break from our diatribes against centralized corporate style mayoral control and turn instead to surrogates.
We reprise the article George Schmidt, editor of Substance, Chicago’s independent educational newspaper, did for us in May (2002) which points to the lessons of Chicago over the last 7 years as a guidepost to the future of education in New York. A group of teachers had the pleasure of meeting George when he visited us this summer. (Note: This meeting with Schmidt was a precursor of the group that eventually formed ICE, which had gotten together primarily because of Weingarten's support for mayoral control.)
We include excerpts from an article on Chicago Teacher Union President Deborah Lynch. We also reprint Lynch’s campaign speech to the Chicago House of Delegates just before she was elected. This rousing speech talks about the impact of the corporate model.
Another Deborah (Meier) also comments on mayoral control in excerpts from an interview she gave the NY Times. Meier has been a legend as a progressive educator who seeks realistic long term solutions to problems and doesn’t just look to create the veneer of “let’s make things look like they’re okay” like the majority of “educators” do.
Howie Schwack, editor of Rockaway’s newspaper The Wave, gives us his surreal account of a meeting with City Council members and points out how politicians just don’t have a clue about education. Schwack’s account makes the future of education in New York look bleak. But then we know that already.
Deborah Meier on mayoral control
Deborah Meier has been a hero to those who wanted to see change in the NYC public school system. Meier seemed to have rational solutions to complex problems. As a teacher she ran open classrooms, started the small schools movement in NYC, and set up a progressive system at the Park East complex in Dist. 4. She finally gave up on the system and moved to Boston to set up a school. Now 71 she was the first public school teacher to win the “genius” MacArthur Foundation grant.
Excerpted from NY Times, 9/3/02, Jane Gross, author
"I can't imagine anything they can do that would make a substantial difference," she said, except bucking a nationwide trend of more and more standardized testing. "If the only thing you want is better test scores, it poisons the game."
Ms. Meier said that the current "mania for accountability," with rewards and punishments for students, teachers and administrators, was borrowed from the corporate world. "It's like Enron," she said, pointing to all the ways that educators can cook the books to make attendance, graduation rates and test scores appear better than they are. "When the goal is the numbers," she added, "it leads to distortion of the data. The connection to reality gets problematic."
What would she do? She would start with a small schools movement:
“Clustered in networks of half a dozen schools, teachers and principals could observe and critique each others' work, design accountability systems to suit their individual needs and systematically study what worked and what did not. It would take five years to arrive at effective measurements,” Ms. Meier said, “and probably a generation to make the small-school model and its less rigid accountability methods the norm.”
Her critics, she said, wanted "a faster, more guaranteed route," like the order to lift test scores annually. Her counter argument is that "being in too much of a hurry leads us to do things that are a waste of time" or to jump on the latest fads. Among them, in Ms. Meier's opinion, are putting city school systems under mayoral control, appointing chancellors who are not educators and moving district superintendents to a central location.
Ed Notes, September 2002
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
'THIS IS NOT A PENITENTIARY': A VIEW FROM PUBLIC SCHOOL
By JB McGeever
An English teacher at Jamaica High School in Queens describes what it's like to share the school with police officers.
City Limits WEEKLY: Week of: November 27, 2006 - Number: 563
The New York Police Department and Department of Education both declined City Limits' invitation to share their perspectives.
The campus of my public school building in New York City is a fortress these days. Gazing through the mesh caging of any stairway window, I can spot faculty deans, campus security (a branch of the NYPD with arresting powers), as well as regular NYPD uniformed officers patrolling the grounds like medieval sentries. As I move through the halls of this majestic, 70 year-old building, I’m forced to sidestep a quartet of firefighters in full regalia, escorted from the building by two police officers, 9 mm Glock handguns bouncing off their hips. The students are unfazed, just part of life in the big city, but imagine: New York’s Finest, Bravest, and Brightest, all right here in one high school – and no one’s quite sure why. Was there a fire in the building today? That’s really none of your business. Information will be doled out on a need-to-know basis. Oh, and welcome back to a brand new school year.
Lunchtime. I find my way into one of the faculty men’s rooms, a police officer’s cap resting on a windowsill, its owner inside one of the stalls, making and taking phone calls like the commissioner himself. In the library, where I go to grade papers, there’s yet another officer. I ignore him, he ignores me, two separate entities here for completely different reasons. I grade my quizzes. He makes his phone calls. Apparently that big sign on the door with the red slash across a cell phone no longer applies. I leave a bit early to beat the rush, and officer on the second floor sees me and bows into a wall, as if in prayer, only he calls the wall “sweetie,” so I assume he’s not speaking to his respective deity.
It’s not so much the constant cell phone use, the squinting, dirty looks as I enter a corridor, or the fact that no one notified the faculty of a police presence in the building. It’s those Glocks in their holsters, the “hand cannons” at their hips. It simply looks obscene in the halls outside my classroom. This is supposed to be a sanctuary. Any literature teacher in the city will tell you, a few well-placed props change the entire setting of a location. I wouldn’t dream of teaching a lesson on “Macbeth” from the backseat of a squad car. What in the world are these people doing with loaded weapons in our halls? It’s just no way for a kid to go to school.
Last semester I had an opportunity to experience what the students go through. While snapping photos of the building to display in the school’s literary magazine, I inadvertently stepped off campus. An NYPD van immediately rolled up and demanded identification. I didn’t have any. Then who was I? Terms like “pedophile” and “terrorist” were used as casually as one might order up, say, a box of doughnuts. Terms like “overkill” and “police state” were hurled back at them. The conversation went downhill from there.
Yet this is the way many of the city’s teenagers attend high school each day. Instead of using the auditorium for assemblies and school plays, it’s been turned into a weigh station for students to adjust their backpacks and redo their belts after removing them for the metal detectors twice a week. Maybe this type of indignity is worth the trouble at the airport or on your way to vacation in the islands, but before gym class? My first year in the building, the assistant principal of security would prove to the students how effective the scanners were by pressing one against the fillings in his teeth – definitely a yearbook moment, boys and girls.
You see, once a building has been labeled an “Impact School,” the police arrive. Once the police arrive, negative publicity ensues. Negative publicity results in a failure to attract good students, and low test scores are right around the corner. Low test scores simply mean that your school building is doomed. In order to avoid this nightmare, many schools fail to report the petty crimes in their buildings. My building, however, was recently praised for a policy of “zero tolerance,” wherein everything from cell phone theft to verbal harassment was reported in good faith. Nothing was swept under the proverbial rug, and now the place is surrounded. Catch 22, anyone?
The end of the day. My girlfriend, who also teaches in the building, likes to give me the day’s news. Since the matter has never been addressed by administration, all the faculty has to go on is hearsay, just ridiculous trench coat meetings in hallways outside of classrooms. Apparently, she tells me, police guns were pulled on two students today. “If I tell you to do something, you better do it,” was the cop’s explanation, which he related to her. Before that he bragged how, in a separate incident, a Muslim student attempted to enter the building using another student’s I.D. and the terrorism unit was called in. Then the officer asked my girlfriend out to dinner. “Well, did you feel a whole lot safer afterwards?” is all I have to say.
This fall, to pound the student body’s collective esteem further into the ground, a Daily News sports reporter covered one of our home football games. The resulting article made its way throughout the school, passed from hand to student hand until a tattered copy reached my desk. For some reason, the reporter’s article got personal. He ridiculed our field, mocked the students who showed up to watch, even jeered the parents who cooked the hot dogs. He questioned our school’s heart, never bothering to wonder if other factors for a lackluster season might be at play. Though, in the reporter’s quest to deride the school, he got our nickname incorrect. For the record, we are the Beavers, sir, the Fightin’ Beavers, and don’t you forget it.
All it takes is for one student to have a bad morning, to carry that burden to school with him and then to act out on it, something that occurs in countless variations throughout schools nationwide. Instead of a routine suspension and a call to Mom, Dad, or even Grandmama, with NYPD presence inside a school the end result could be a world of hurt that no one ever imagined.
On our way out of the building, we pass one of the flyers some of the students have taped to the walls in an effort to win back their school. It shows a graphic with a pair of young hands gripping steel bars. “This is not a penitentiary,” it says. “We are students, not inmates.” If tales of danger are truly what you seek, dear reader, I’m writing this essay during the first semester of my tenure year. Now that is truly frightening.
Ed Notes Note:
While some teachers in schools deemed "dangerous" welcome an influx of police, this article is so powerful Ed Notes is prepared to take the position that police do not belong in schools. So what is the choice? The UFT MUST demand that the schools be inundated with proper resources -- and influx of educators - teachers, social workers, guidance counselors - whatever it takes. Creating a police state is the easy way and the UFT often takes the easy way while making noises that they would like there to be an educational solution but doing nothing to rally people to the cause. When there was high crime, they didn't put teachers on the streets but inundated the streets with a police presence. Let's innundate these schools with educators to find long-term solutions.
An English teacher at Jamaica High School in Queens describes what it's like to share the school with police officers.
City Limits WEEKLY: Week of: November 27, 2006 - Number: 563
The New York Police Department and Department of Education both declined City Limits' invitation to share their perspectives.
The campus of my public school building in New York City is a fortress these days. Gazing through the mesh caging of any stairway window, I can spot faculty deans, campus security (a branch of the NYPD with arresting powers), as well as regular NYPD uniformed officers patrolling the grounds like medieval sentries. As I move through the halls of this majestic, 70 year-old building, I’m forced to sidestep a quartet of firefighters in full regalia, escorted from the building by two police officers, 9 mm Glock handguns bouncing off their hips. The students are unfazed, just part of life in the big city, but imagine: New York’s Finest, Bravest, and Brightest, all right here in one high school – and no one’s quite sure why. Was there a fire in the building today? That’s really none of your business. Information will be doled out on a need-to-know basis. Oh, and welcome back to a brand new school year.
Lunchtime. I find my way into one of the faculty men’s rooms, a police officer’s cap resting on a windowsill, its owner inside one of the stalls, making and taking phone calls like the commissioner himself. In the library, where I go to grade papers, there’s yet another officer. I ignore him, he ignores me, two separate entities here for completely different reasons. I grade my quizzes. He makes his phone calls. Apparently that big sign on the door with the red slash across a cell phone no longer applies. I leave a bit early to beat the rush, and officer on the second floor sees me and bows into a wall, as if in prayer, only he calls the wall “sweetie,” so I assume he’s not speaking to his respective deity.
It’s not so much the constant cell phone use, the squinting, dirty looks as I enter a corridor, or the fact that no one notified the faculty of a police presence in the building. It’s those Glocks in their holsters, the “hand cannons” at their hips. It simply looks obscene in the halls outside my classroom. This is supposed to be a sanctuary. Any literature teacher in the city will tell you, a few well-placed props change the entire setting of a location. I wouldn’t dream of teaching a lesson on “Macbeth” from the backseat of a squad car. What in the world are these people doing with loaded weapons in our halls? It’s just no way for a kid to go to school.
Last semester I had an opportunity to experience what the students go through. While snapping photos of the building to display in the school’s literary magazine, I inadvertently stepped off campus. An NYPD van immediately rolled up and demanded identification. I didn’t have any. Then who was I? Terms like “pedophile” and “terrorist” were used as casually as one might order up, say, a box of doughnuts. Terms like “overkill” and “police state” were hurled back at them. The conversation went downhill from there.
Yet this is the way many of the city’s teenagers attend high school each day. Instead of using the auditorium for assemblies and school plays, it’s been turned into a weigh station for students to adjust their backpacks and redo their belts after removing them for the metal detectors twice a week. Maybe this type of indignity is worth the trouble at the airport or on your way to vacation in the islands, but before gym class? My first year in the building, the assistant principal of security would prove to the students how effective the scanners were by pressing one against the fillings in his teeth – definitely a yearbook moment, boys and girls.
You see, once a building has been labeled an “Impact School,” the police arrive. Once the police arrive, negative publicity ensues. Negative publicity results in a failure to attract good students, and low test scores are right around the corner. Low test scores simply mean that your school building is doomed. In order to avoid this nightmare, many schools fail to report the petty crimes in their buildings. My building, however, was recently praised for a policy of “zero tolerance,” wherein everything from cell phone theft to verbal harassment was reported in good faith. Nothing was swept under the proverbial rug, and now the place is surrounded. Catch 22, anyone?
The end of the day. My girlfriend, who also teaches in the building, likes to give me the day’s news. Since the matter has never been addressed by administration, all the faculty has to go on is hearsay, just ridiculous trench coat meetings in hallways outside of classrooms. Apparently, she tells me, police guns were pulled on two students today. “If I tell you to do something, you better do it,” was the cop’s explanation, which he related to her. Before that he bragged how, in a separate incident, a Muslim student attempted to enter the building using another student’s I.D. and the terrorism unit was called in. Then the officer asked my girlfriend out to dinner. “Well, did you feel a whole lot safer afterwards?” is all I have to say.
This fall, to pound the student body’s collective esteem further into the ground, a Daily News sports reporter covered one of our home football games. The resulting article made its way throughout the school, passed from hand to student hand until a tattered copy reached my desk. For some reason, the reporter’s article got personal. He ridiculed our field, mocked the students who showed up to watch, even jeered the parents who cooked the hot dogs. He questioned our school’s heart, never bothering to wonder if other factors for a lackluster season might be at play. Though, in the reporter’s quest to deride the school, he got our nickname incorrect. For the record, we are the Beavers, sir, the Fightin’ Beavers, and don’t you forget it.
All it takes is for one student to have a bad morning, to carry that burden to school with him and then to act out on it, something that occurs in countless variations throughout schools nationwide. Instead of a routine suspension and a call to Mom, Dad, or even Grandmama, with NYPD presence inside a school the end result could be a world of hurt that no one ever imagined.
On our way out of the building, we pass one of the flyers some of the students have taped to the walls in an effort to win back their school. It shows a graphic with a pair of young hands gripping steel bars. “This is not a penitentiary,” it says. “We are students, not inmates.” If tales of danger are truly what you seek, dear reader, I’m writing this essay during the first semester of my tenure year. Now that is truly frightening.
Ed Notes Note:
While some teachers in schools deemed "dangerous" welcome an influx of police, this article is so powerful Ed Notes is prepared to take the position that police do not belong in schools. So what is the choice? The UFT MUST demand that the schools be inundated with proper resources -- and influx of educators - teachers, social workers, guidance counselors - whatever it takes. Creating a police state is the easy way and the UFT often takes the easy way while making noises that they would like there to be an educational solution but doing nothing to rally people to the cause. When there was high crime, they didn't put teachers on the streets but inundated the streets with a police presence. Let's innundate these schools with educators to find long-term solutions.
Sunday, November 26, 2006
Query on unscheduled parent meeting
An elementary chapter leader asks:
I want to know if a teacher has the right to leave an unscheduled meeting with a parent and an administrator when the parent is rude, offensive and very hostile and the administrator does nothing to mediate/intervene on the educator's behalf. Personally, I think anyone who feels that the atmosphere in a meeting is unsafe, physically or emotionally, ought to be able to remove themselves.
Any ideas?
I want to know if a teacher has the right to leave an unscheduled meeting with a parent and an administrator when the parent is rude, offensive and very hostile and the administrator does nothing to mediate/intervene on the educator's behalf. Personally, I think anyone who feels that the atmosphere in a meeting is unsafe, physically or emotionally, ought to be able to remove themselves.
Any ideas?
Saturday, November 25, 2006
Statistics Always Lie
November, 2006Well, recent reports in the NY Post are indicationg that the stats ongrad rates haev been massaged just a bit. After attending a press conference on June 29, 2006, where Joel Klein announced to an astounded press corps that the city had underestimated the graduation rate, I wrote the following article for The Wave.
City Grad Rates Were In Error
When New York City schools Chancellor Joel Klein announced at a press conference on June 29th that the Department of Education had made an error in reporting graduation rates, a betting person would have wagered that a correction in the original DOE estimate of 53% for the class of 2005 would be significantly lower. When reported in February that was a 1% drop from the 2004 graduation class and had resulted in criticism of Klein and Mayor Bloomberg.
In recent weeks, the press has been reporting figures of 39%- 43% from Education Week, the leading national journal of education reporting, the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank often critical of Klein, and the New York State Education Department. During the mayoral campaign last year, Bloomberg’s opponent, Freddie Ferrer, claimed these rates were more in line with reality.
But instead of confirming these dismal figures, Klein reported that the February number had been too low and the actual graduation rate was 58%, the highest in 20 years and a 4% rise from 2004, one of the largest jumps in history. The errors were due programming errors.
As a result the accounting firm of Ernst & Young was retained at a cost of $68,000 to verify the numbers. Klein said the verification practice would continue in future years at roughly the same cost.
Klein also reported good news that the first group of small schools started under his stewardship four years ago had significantly higher graduation rates than large comprehensive high schools, though the numbers were small. When asked whether the high grad numbers n small schools were impacted by the fact that special education students had been excluded from these schools “so they schools could get on their feet,” resulting in the most difficult students being shoehorned into the larger schools, Klein responded that the demographics still showed high numbers of Level 1 and 2 (lowest reading levels) students in the small schools when they opened. He denied these schools engaged in what he termed as “creaming” in an attempt to exclude difficult students.
He glossed over the fact that that not all level 1 and 2 students are special ed, which requries a significantly higher level of support resources, which are often shorthchnaged in the large schools and may to some extent explain the difference in graduation rates.
Responding to reporters at times skeptical questions, Klein admitted that the citywide graduation numbers include high school equivalency (GED) and special education (IEP) diplomas, which he said cannot be considered equal to a traditional diploma. He estimated that excluding GED and IEP diplomas would lower the rate by about 3 percentage points, but pointed out they had always been included in the past, emphasizing he was comparing apples to apples. (Some of our sources who worked at high levels in special ed contend that IEP diplomas have not always been included). City graduation figures also exclude disabled students, which the state includes.
Leonie Haimson of Class Size Matters, often a critic of Klein and of press coverage of educational issues, said in an email, “Most of the media took Klein’s claim with a grain of salt, except for the NY Times, which unaccountably swallowed DOE’s claim hook, line and sinker, without mentioning any of the recent and more reputable independent analyses.”
The article in the Times said "…there was no dispute over the overall graduation numbers, which independent monitors of the school system said was consistent with their own analysis of graduation and dropout trends."
Haimson continued, “There is no respected, independent organization or agency that either agrees with NYC’s method of calculating graduation rates – by counting GEDs as regular degrees and excluding special ed kids and thousands of students discharged from the system every year-- or their ridiculously inflated figure of 58%.”
Just the day before the press conference I submitted the following which appeared in the June 30, 2006 edition of The Wave.
Bloomberg used the big rise in 4th grade test scores last year to claim his Children Last – er – I mean First “reforms” were working splendidly. (Hordes of 3rd graders were enrolling in post-doctorate programs.) Education pundits disputed that, claiming that the test was clearly easier as all large urban areas in the state rose, most even higher that those of BloomKleindom, even though these school districts wouldn’t let a workshop model program get within 10 feet of their schools.
When the 5th grade reading scores of those former “successful” 4th graders from last year dropped drastically, no one was really surprised, except the gullible, or worse, the complacent NY Ed Press corps.
Then we find that BloomKlein’s claim of a 53-54% graduation rate [bumped to 57% in the fall of '06] was bogus (say it ain’t so Mikey and Joey). Recent studies have estimated the rate to be under 40%, a number which Freddie Ferrer (remember him) was claiming during the mayoral campaign and was charged with bumming all the BloomKlein cheerleaders out. (Zip, zoom, bow-wow – the only acceptable cheer for Children Last – er – First. Sorry, I keep getting confused.)
And the final straw for a bad few weeks for ol’ BloomKlein was the news that the small schools that had been trumpeted as a clear sign of SUCCESS had the slight advantage of not accepting too many special ed or difficult students, leaving these students to be shunted to the big high schools which were then being closed down because they are not as successful as the small schools. You really can’t make this stuff up. Many of us suspect the same scam is being pulled in some of the heralded charter schools. But that’s a story for another day.
When all is done and told (probably after BloomKlein are gone) the “children last” “reforms” will turn out to be the proverbial rearrangement of deck chairs.
Friday, November 24, 2006
The Galleries Lafayette
More on Jolanta Rohloff at Lafayette HS
You may have read ”The Galleries Lafayette,” in my Wave columns last spring on Jolanta Rohloff, the Leadership Academy trained principal of Lafayette HS. We’ve commented how these people are trained by pulling wings off butterflies to get them ready to torture teachers. The mainstream press has picked up a number of stories about Rohloff, the latest being Samuel Freedman in the Nov. 22 edition of the NY Times. After starting out talking about the Ministry of Fear, Freedman unfortunately drops the ball and never connects Rohloff’s dictatorial management style to the training at the Lead. Acad., giving Rohloff half the column to defend herself. The DOE press releases have been doing that, so what bother? I guess that’s “balanced” press for you.
The article naturally talks about how horrible the school was BR (Before Rohloff), the usual mantra to justify any action of BloomKlein no matter how horrendous. The mantra used by the corporate takeover types to degrade the public schools as an excuse for the hostile takeover, one of the clearest signs being the appointment of non-educators to run large school systems. (Think Scarsdale is hiring a CEO?)
Back to Rohloff. Stories have been floating out of Lafayette that there are a thousand less students and the school is way underserved. By manipulating the population, the DOE increases the chances of Rohloff being a success and justifying her actions in driving many teachers out of the school. In fact Rohloff showed up the first day with threats of a sea if U ratings. One person told me Rohloff’s first words were “Why do you want to be here?” followed by U-observations within the first 2 weeks of school. Rohloff has managed to unite teachers, students, parents and alumni against her. Maybe we should send her and the entire Leadership Academy to Iraq.
Leonie Haimson on city grad rates
http://www.classsizematters.org/
Bravo for Comptroller Thompson! He has had a very good week.
According to the NY Post, he has now written a letter to the Chancellor, pointing out how the consistent rise in the number of students discharged from our high schools calls into doubt the DOE claim of a rising graduation rate. For the class or 2005, the number of students discharged rose to an amazing 16,647 – according to the city’s own numbers.
It’s about time that public officials started speaking out about this; I have consistently pointed out the growth in the number of discharged students to everyone who would listen; for those who are interested, see my slide on this below (w/ data taken straight out of the Mayor’s management report).
Unfortunately, there has been an overly credulous attitude on the part of the media that city graduation rates have actually improved – most prominently as displayed in a NY Times article on June 30, entitled “Graduation Rate Improving, Schools Chancellor Says” in which the following phrase was included, in relation to the city’s claim of 58% graduation rate:” ...there was no dispute over the overall graduation numbers, which independent monitors of the school system said was consistent with their own analysis of graduation and dropout trends."
I’m not sure who these “independent monitors” might be. As I wrote to the Times at the time, asking for a correction, “To the contrary, three highly respected independent monitors, including the NY State Education Department, the Manhattan Institute, and Education Week have all reported graduation rates for NYC much lower than the 58% rate claimed by the NYC Department of Education. Just a few months ago, the New York State Education Department reported graduation rates in New York City of only 43.5% for the exact same cohort of students, a difference of more than 15%. ” (Contrary to their supposed official policy, I never even received a response from the Times.)
Unfortunately, the actual trend in the NYC graduation rate is impossible to determine, given the illegitimate method that the city continues to use; and the state’s improved method was instituted for the first time with the class of 2005.
Moreover, nowhere in the DOE graduation reports does the city even claim that all those students discharged from the system actually ever transferred to other regular high schools, as the below article implies; the discharge category also includes all students sent to alternative schools and GED programs, few if any who graduate with a high school diploma.
The actual disclaimer used by DOE in its graduation reports, most recently for the 16,647 students reported discharged from the 2001 cohort of entering HS students, is the following: “*Number of students discharged, primarily to other school systems, during the indicated school year.” http://www.nycboe.net/daa/reports/Class%20of%202005_Four-Year_Longitudinal_Report.pdf, p.4)
The city offers no data as to how many of these students did transfer to other “schools systems”, what kind of school systems, how many were sent to GED programs, and how many ended up as dropouts.
The State Education Department, which relies on the city’s report concerning how many of these students actually transfer to other regular high schools, whether in or out of the state, without even attempting to confirm this, still comes out with figures of only 43.5% for the city’s graduation rate, rather than the 58% figure that the city reports. Which would lead one to suspect that even the 43.5% estimate may be too high.
With the help of an intern, I have prepared tables w/ comparisons of graduation rates as calculated by the city, the state, the federal govt., and independent agencies – all of which show that the city’s figures significantly inflated. If anyone would like to see them, please let me know.
What’s even worse is that the incentives will become even stronger for principals to discharge even more low-performing students in the future, given that their schools will be primarily judged on test scores and attendance, ignoring all students who are “discharged” or sent elsewhere.
Bravo for Comptroller Thompson! He has had a very good week.
According to the NY Post, he has now written a letter to the Chancellor, pointing out how the consistent rise in the number of students discharged from our high schools calls into doubt the DOE claim of a rising graduation rate. For the class or 2005, the number of students discharged rose to an amazing 16,647 – according to the city’s own numbers.
It’s about time that public officials started speaking out about this; I have consistently pointed out the growth in the number of discharged students to everyone who would listen; for those who are interested, see my slide on this below (w/ data taken straight out of the Mayor’s management report).
Unfortunately, there has been an overly credulous attitude on the part of the media that city graduation rates have actually improved – most prominently as displayed in a NY Times article on June 30, entitled “Graduation Rate Improving, Schools Chancellor Says” in which the following phrase was included, in relation to the city’s claim of 58% graduation rate:” ...there was no dispute over the overall graduation numbers, which independent monitors of the school system said was consistent with their own analysis of graduation and dropout trends."
I’m not sure who these “independent monitors” might be. As I wrote to the Times at the time, asking for a correction, “To the contrary, three highly respected independent monitors, including the NY State Education Department, the Manhattan Institute, and Education Week have all reported graduation rates for NYC much lower than the 58% rate claimed by the NYC Department of Education. Just a few months ago, the New York State Education Department reported graduation rates in New York City of only 43.5% for the exact same cohort of students, a difference of more than 15%. ” (Contrary to their supposed official policy, I never even received a response from the Times.)
Unfortunately, the actual trend in the NYC graduation rate is impossible to determine, given the illegitimate method that the city continues to use; and the state’s improved method was instituted for the first time with the class of 2005.
Moreover, nowhere in the DOE graduation reports does the city even claim that all those students discharged from the system actually ever transferred to other regular high schools, as the below article implies; the discharge category also includes all students sent to alternative schools and GED programs, few if any who graduate with a high school diploma.
The actual disclaimer used by DOE in its graduation reports, most recently for the 16,647 students reported discharged from the 2001 cohort of entering HS students, is the following: “*Number of students discharged, primarily to other school systems, during the indicated school year.” http://www.nycboe.net/daa/reports/Class%20of%202005_Four-Year_Longitudinal_Report.pdf, p.4)
The city offers no data as to how many of these students did transfer to other “schools systems”, what kind of school systems, how many were sent to GED programs, and how many ended up as dropouts.
The State Education Department, which relies on the city’s report concerning how many of these students actually transfer to other regular high schools, whether in or out of the state, without even attempting to confirm this, still comes out with figures of only 43.5% for the city’s graduation rate, rather than the 58% figure that the city reports. Which would lead one to suspect that even the 43.5% estimate may be too high.
With the help of an intern, I have prepared tables w/ comparisons of graduation rates as calculated by the city, the state, the federal govt., and independent agencies – all of which show that the city’s figures significantly inflated. If anyone would like to see them, please let me know.
What’s even worse is that the incentives will become even stronger for principals to discharge even more low-performing students in the future, given that their schools will be primarily judged on test scores and attendance, ignoring all students who are “discharged” or sent elsewhere.
Thursday, November 23, 2006
No Child - The Play
Nilaja Sun has received kudos for her one-woman performance in No Child, called “Compelling Theatre” in one review. But no matter how high your expectations upon entering the theater, you will emerge saying they weren’t high enough.
A review by theatergoer ancess1 on the NY Times theater page says, “She fills the stage with a whole school. The determined principal, the struggling and inept new teacher, the wise old janitor, the energetic and idealistic teaching artist, and especially the 5 or 6 vibrant, shy, defiant, unruly, belligerent, troubled, and ultimately triumphant students all come vividly alive in Ms. Sun's astonishing transformations.”
The audience, filled mostly with teachers, howled with delight throughout the performance. There were a few tears too.
I attended the performance of No Child at the Barrow Street Theater on Friday, Nov. 17 with thirty-two current and former NYC school teachers. Our group came together through the auspices of the Independent Community of Educators (ICE), a reform group in the UFT.
It was a pleasure to revisit with some of the teachers and parents from PS 147, the school I had taught at for 27 years. The group included Mary (Acevedo) Torres, a parent from the school who had survived being in my 5th and 6th grade classes, graduating from the school in 1979. I also had the pleasure of teaching Mary’s three brothers. Jasmin, her 17-year-old daughter, a senior at Health Professionals HS joined Mary at the play.
Jasmin, Mary Hoffman, Mary Torres, Nilaja Sun
When you’re out of teaching for a while it is easy to forget the sense of what it was all about. My memory is fogged and I only seem to remember the bad things I did as a teacher. Spending some time reminiscing with Mary, who I never completely touch with, brought back some of the good things. Despite my protestations, she maintains I was a good teacher. BloomKlein would have me gone in 10 minutes but I’d like to think Mary knows best.
Do not walk. Do not run. Fly - as fast as you can and go see No Child before it flies off on tour.
You feel pretty old when your former student from 27 years ago shows up with her 17 year old daughter.
Check out the NY Times "A Night Out With Nilaja Sun."
A review by theatergoer ancess1 on the NY Times theater page says, “She fills the stage with a whole school. The determined principal, the struggling and inept new teacher, the wise old janitor, the energetic and idealistic teaching artist, and especially the 5 or 6 vibrant, shy, defiant, unruly, belligerent, troubled, and ultimately triumphant students all come vividly alive in Ms. Sun's astonishing transformations.”
The audience, filled mostly with teachers, howled with delight throughout the performance. There were a few tears too.
I attended the performance of No Child at the Barrow Street Theater on Friday, Nov. 17 with thirty-two current and former NYC school teachers. Our group came together through the auspices of the Independent Community of Educators (ICE), a reform group in the UFT.
It was a pleasure to revisit with some of the teachers and parents from PS 147, the school I had taught at for 27 years. The group included Mary (Acevedo) Torres, a parent from the school who had survived being in my 5th and 6th grade classes, graduating from the school in 1979. I also had the pleasure of teaching Mary’s three brothers. Jasmin, her 17-year-old daughter, a senior at Health Professionals HS joined Mary at the play.Jasmin, Mary Hoffman, Mary Torres, Nilaja Sun
When you’re out of teaching for a while it is easy to forget the sense of what it was all about. My memory is fogged and I only seem to remember the bad things I did as a teacher. Spending some time reminiscing with Mary, who I never completely touch with, brought back some of the good things. Despite my protestations, she maintains I was a good teacher. BloomKlein would have me gone in 10 minutes but I’d like to think Mary knows best.
Do not walk. Do not run. Fly - as fast as you can and go see No Child before it flies off on tour.
You feel pretty old when your former student from 27 years ago shows up with her 17 year old daughter.
Check out the NY Times "A Night Out With Nilaja Sun."
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